


The Heart’s True Essence

by aurons_fan



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M, Pre-Slash, Riku is a jerk and feels bad about it kinda, kingdom hearts 1 timeline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-12
Updated: 2015-04-12
Packaged: 2018-03-17 11:19:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,818
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3527357
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aurons_fan/pseuds/aurons_fan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What would have happened if Riku had won that first battle in Hollow Bastion?  </p><p>(Or the one where Riku gets to wield the keyblade and regrets it, Kairi is tired of being left behind, and Donald and Goofy tag along to stop Sora-nort.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I… have no idea where this came from. I think after the last fic people said I should write fluff and well… oops.
> 
> Also KH1!Riku was brilliant. A complete jerk of the 3rd degree, but definitely interesting.
> 
> Also! I forgot but the idea came from the song, "Am I Wrong" by Nico and Vinz, and specially the lyric "Am I wrong, thinking out the box from where I stand" because it made me think of how Riku didn't think of what he was doing was wrong until like, everything fell to shit.

Riku knew he had won when Sora collapsed to his knees with that last stroke of Soul Eater. But when the Keyblade disappeared from Sora’s hand and appeared in his, Riku just grinned.

Without a thought, he quickly switched the Keyblade to his right hand and held it to Sora’s neck, though he didn’t have to. The boy knew he had been defeated and hadn’t moved to look up from the ground since.

“Sora!” The duck squawked. Riku had a half mind to blast it out of the castle when hoards of heartless appeared. The king’s lackeys froze and looked at the surrounding enemies. The creature he’d attacked earlier (Beast, maybe? Who cared), was pulled out of a nearby storage closest and thrown onto the ground by a group of Soldier heartless.

A Defender heartless approached, and Riku took a step back, relishing in his victory. “Take them to the dungeon,” he said. The heartless seemingly understood, and closed ranks around the group. “Make sure he stays away from the rest,” Riku added, nodding towards Sora.

He resisted a grin when an Air Soldier picked up the duck and dragged him away, his squawks echoing in the hall. But he had to work to keep the smile on when Sora was pulled to his feet and looked at him.

“Riku,” he said softly. Riku could feel his smile curling into a scowl. “Why?”

He held up his hand, halting the Heartless about to drag Sora away.

“I could have you killed,” he said, leaning forward. “You should be grateful.”

With that, he waved his hand, and Sora was dragged off.

\--

Riku stood over Kairi’s lifeless body, working hard to ignore Maleficent as she practically screeched in his ear.

“You had them!” she bellowed, waving her staff around dramatically. “And yet you did not see to it that they were vanquished? Have I taught you nothing?”

He summoned the Keyblade as a reminder to what he’d gained, ignoring how uncomfortable he felt holding it. The handle was still slightly warm, and he lowered his hand, scowling. “We gain nothing by killing them,” he muttered.

“Imagine if they break out,” she hissed, leaning in close. He felt her rest a hand on his shoulder. “Imagine if they approach you and manage to take _your_ Keyblade again. Are you going to let that happen, Riku?”

He scoffed and pushed her hand off, trying to shake the icky feeling he always got when she was too close. “It’s _not_ going to happen,” he said. “I have his weapon. He’s being held far away from the others.” He turned and leveled her a look. “I _won_. What else is there?”

“Well,” she said, with a huff. “There’s the matter of the girl’s heart. I suppose you’re going to ask _me_ to look after the king’s brats when you traverse the worlds looking for it again?”

He could have easily won this stare off with Maleficent, but he never liked looking at her too long. “No,” he said, turning and walking out of the room. “I have an idea.”

\--

Riku never liked going to the dungeons. They were murky and wet and uncomfortable and always smelled a little like someone had just died. As he stepped out of a portal, he could hear the duck screeching up a storm and that dog creature blathering something to calm him down. He muttered a silencing spell under his breath and the duck stopped talking.

Thank god.

He strode past their cell, leveling the duck a knowing look, before continuing down the pathway. With every empty cell he passed, he tried not to worry too much. It’s not like he had much to worry about, but locking his best friend (former best friend?) in a dungeon probably wasn’t the way to renew their friendship. But Riku was willing to try. He could be benevolent, once Sora realized how wrong he had been.

As he approached the cell, he nodded to the heartless standing guard, reliving them of their duties. He glanced inside. Sora sat staring at one of the walls, hands bound by powerful magic, refusing to look at him.

Riku tucked his hands his pockets and smirked. “What’s the score now? 99-0?” He scowled when Sora acted like he didn’t hear. Gritting his teeth, he summoned the Keyblade and rattled it against the bars. “I didn’t think you were such a sore loser, Sora.”

When Sora finally did turn to look at him, Riku had to try not to jump back in surprise. Sora's expression oozed hatred and rage. Riku had never seen Sora look at someone like that.

“Don’t worry,” Riku said, trying to play off his shock. “I’ll take good care of _my_ Keyblade.”

“By doing what?” Sora spat. Riku growled. “You’re going to kidnap more people? What’s next? Hurting them? Or have you fallen so far as to kill someone now?”

“I could’ve had you killed!” Riku shouted. The Keyblade clattered to the ground as he gripped the bars. “I _am_ the one and true Keyblade master. And you just have to accept that I’m stronger than you.”

Sora turned away and Riku huffed, summoning the blade back to his hand. Neither of them said anything for a long moment, but then Riku heard Sora mumble, “What happened?” Riku blinked and Sora turned to him, eyes flashing. “You were always the strongest, back at home. What made you team up with _Maleficent_ to prove something you already knew? She’s destroyed entire _worlds_!”

“Well, if you hadn’t _abandoned_ me for those freaks,” Riku shot back. “Maybe this would’ve have happened.”

“I didn’t _abandon_ you!” Sora shouted, jumping to his feet. “I was looking for you and Kairi! If you hadn’t jumped to conclusions so fast, you could’ve come with us!”

Riku growled but held back his next words. He had actually come down here for a purpose, not just to reopen old wounds. “Well,” he said icily. “Maybe you can actually help Kairi, instead of just moping here.” Sora’s harsh expression fell and Riku crossed his arms. “She’s still unconscious and her heart is still missing. I thought maybe you’d like a chance to help your _actual_ friends, instead of worrying about people who abandoned you as soon as the Keyblade switched hands.”

As fast as Sora’s look softened did he scowl again. “Donald and Goofy were following orders. And they came back to me as soon as they could!” he said. Riku shrugged. “But her heart’s missing? How… can I help?”

Riku approached the bars again and smiled. “If you agree to work with me, I’m sure Maleficent will let you out,” he said. “Renounce the king’s lackeys and devote yourself to the darkness.” Riku ignored Sora’s disgusted look. “If you embrace it, maybe you’ll find out how strong you can be. Maybe,” he grinned, leaning against the bars. “Maybe then you’ll actually be able to beat me.”

The look Sora gave him made his heart clench. It was a mixture of anger and fear, and … _pity_. Riku quickly let go of the bars. “Oh Riku,” Sora said, eyes soft. “I’m sorry I didn’t find you first, if this is what you’ve become.”

Riku stepped back and gripped his hand into a fist. “Fine,” he seethed. “Stay here and _rot_. See if I care.” He turned, and summoned the heartless again, but before he walked away, he added, “When Kairi wakes up, I’ll be sure to let her know how you helped save her.”

With that, he stormed off, shooting another silencing spell to the duck as he passed.

\--

He could’ve gone back to Maleficent and told her he was planning to leave again, do another comb over of the worlds he’d already searched just to check again. But he instead found himself walking the halls of the castle slowly, hands stuffed into his pockets, fuming.

What right did Sora have to look down at him like that? It wasn’t like Sora had spent any time actually trying to help Kairi. Oh no, he was far too concerned for puppets and rude talking ducks, and meeting _new_ people. Sora just left Riku and Kairi behind. Probably always had planned to.

Riku sighed and leaned against a railing, lowering his head. What was he even talking about. Sora wasn’t like that. Sora was… kind to a fault, and goofy and… Riku gripped his hand. And a _betrayer_ and a _backstabber_ and a …

Summoning the Keyblade, Riku looked over it, inspecting it for any faults. “How did he manage to get it back,” Riku mused aloud. “It was mine.”

“Know this,” a voice said from behind him and Riku almost jumped a foot in the air. He turned quickly, brandishing the Keyblade, only to see a figure in a cloak hovering near him. “The heart that is strong and true shall win the Keyblade.”

Riku gripped the weapon tightly and narrowed his eyes. “Are you saying my heart is weaker than his?”

“For that instance, it was,” the figure said, and Riku grit his teeth. “But, yours has proven to be the stronger of the two.”

Riku sighed, lowering it. “Strong or not, I still can’t figure out what happened to Kairi’s heart.” He glanced down, turning the Keyblade on its side. “Maybe this will help me?”

There was a loud clatter and RIku glanced to his other side to see another Keyblade by his feet. Unlike the one in his hands, this one was black and red, and pointed at the top. “The boy you fought with has her heart,” the figure said.

There was a long pause. Riku looked between the new Keyblade and the figure in the cloak before he burst out laughing. “Are you saying,” Riku gasped, “that in all my travels, Sora has been lying to me about Kairi?”

“The boy has no idea,” the figure said. Riku knelt down to pick up the Keyblade and this one felt… so much heavier somehow. As his fingers brushed the handle, he could swear he felt screams in his head, and he almost dropped it. One of them sounded suspiciously like the princess he had nabbed in Agrabah. “This Keyblade has the power to unlock people’s hearts. I recommend using it on him.”

He shook the voices out of his head and gripped the new Keyblade tight. “Are you saying, if I use this weapon, I can save Kairi?”

“Yes,” the figure said, and Riku’s face burst into a grin. He turned to leave. “But,” the figure added and floated on next to him. “That boy interests me. He could become stronger, if only he opened his heart to the darkness.”

Riku scoffed. “Yeah, but Sora’s such a bonehead that he’ll never consider it.” Letting the original Keyblade disappear, Riku summoned a bout of green flame. “He’s being manipulated by the king’s men, and he’s probably going to die because of it.”

The figure hummed and floated beside him. Riku resisted the urge to shiver. “When you use this Keyblade,” the figure finally said. “Allow me to bare witness to this ceremony. I assure you that he will understand the true power of darkness.”

Something in the back of Riku’s mind told him that he shouldn't accept this man's offer. This mysterious man had summoned a Keyblade from nowhere and was far too knowledgeable about a situation that he should have no idea about.

But…

Riku looked at the new Keyblade and nodded. “Fine. Whatever,” he said, turning to walk down the hall. “As long as this saves Kairi.”

\--

The Heartless lead Sora to the middle of the entrance hall of the castle. Riku smirked. After defeating Sora there, it just seemed like a logical place. Riku half waited to watch Sora try to escape and felt disappointed when his friend didn’t even move a muscle.

The Heartless had also brought up the king’s men and they watched while heavily guarded. Sora stood in the middle of the room as Kairi’s body lay in front of him. Riku watched intently to see his expression, but Sora kept his eyes on Riku, narrowing when Riku pulled out the new weapon.

He had no idea where the mysterious figure had gone. He shrugged and turned to Sora, pointing the weapon at the boy’s chest.

“You’ve abandoned me,” he said, relishing in how his voice boomed in the hall. “Are you going to allow Kairi’s heart to stay trapped within you?”

Sora’s expression screwed up with confusion. “Wait, what?”

“Kairi’s heart,” Riku said slowly, “is inside you.” He gave Sora a second to digest that before adding, “And this is a Keyblade that can unlock people’s hearts.” Sora glanced down, noting the sharp tip. “Will you let me save Kairi, or will you continue to be _selfish_ and only worry about yourself?”

Sora lowered his head. “I…”

“Sora, don’t!” The duck screeched. Riku almost threw another silencing spell back, but Sora spoke again.

“Are you sure it will save Kairi?” he said softly, and Riku turned, lowering the weapon slightly. “I don’t… want to _die_ , but I want to save her.”

“He will live,” a voice from the shadows whispered. Sora’s head snapped up.

“Who was that?” Sora said, eyes darting across the room. When he saw no one out of the ordinary, he gave Riku a pleading look. “Riku?”

Riku steeled himself and pointed the weapon at Sora again. “Do you want to save Kairi or not?” he asked, gripping the Keyblade tightly.

After a long moment, Sora lowered his head again, and nodded. “Yes.” He whispered, closing his eyes. “Riku, I’m so sorry.”

Riku chose to ignore that, and pushed the Keyblade into Sora’s chest. Sora’s head jerked up and his eyes widened but Riku was too busy staring at the Keyblade in shock. It didn’t feel like any sort of weapon he’d ever fought with. Although it was heavy, once he drove it forward, it felt weightless, like something in it was breaking apart.

Or... it actually was breaking apart. Riku took a step back as the Keyblade dissolved into different baubles of light and floated off. He noted one flew from Sora’s body towards Kairi, and he turned to face her, grinning when it landed in her chest.

“Now,” the mysterious voice said. Riku glanced to the corner where he’d heard it previously. He faintly heard the swish of a cloak and the voice said, “The pieces have fallen into place.”

He turned to look back to Sora but Sora was suddenly enveloped in a wave of darkness. He instead moved to cover Kairi, who was blinking open her eyes in confusion.

The heartless in the room all began to quiver and the dog and the duck suddenly were beside him. He growled, and summoned his Keyblade force them back, when Kairi stared past him, eyes wide.

“Sora?” she whispered, and Riku turned.

Sora stood there, eyes closed, just as still as he’d been before, hands still locked in front of him. He smirked, and with a sharp tug of his wrists, dispelling the magical biding and rubbed at his hands.

“It has been too long since I’ve had physical form,” Sora said. Riku recoiled because that wasn’t Sora. The voice sounded like that mysterious figure’s but there was still a bit of Sora coming through as well. Riku suddenly realized the cloak fallen to the ground. “And the princesses have back their hearts. Excellent.”

Sora’s eyes opened and Riku’s couldn’t hold back the gasp when he saw that they were yellow. “Who…” He stammered, climbing to his feet. He faintly noticed when the dog behind him helped Kairi up. “Who are you?”

Sora fixed him with a pointed look. “It is I, Ansem. Seeker of Darkness,” he said with a vicious smile. He took a step forward, and Riku took a step back, summoning the Keyblade and clutching it close to him. “You asked for your friend to embrace the darkness, and I have allowed it.”

“Not… not like this!” Riku shouted, shaking. “Sora, come back, please!”

Sora’s grin wider and he took a step forward. “The keyhole is now complete, princess,” Sora said, gesturing to Kairi. Riku froze because, whoa wait, Kairi was a princess? But Sora continued moving forward. “You have served your purpose. But now it’s over.”

Riku had never seen Sora looking at him with the intent to kill, but he was certain that was the look this pseudo-Sora was giving him now. Even with all his strength and a new Keyblade in his hands, he couldn’t move. This wasn’t Sora. Sora wouldn’t _do_ this!

Before Sora could continue moving, he stopped short, as if he was rooted to the spot. “What…” he said, pulling at his muscles. “The boy has been lost to the darkness! His heart should be –”

“Not all of it!”

There was a flash of light and a transparent boy appeared. He looked nothing and everything like Sora, with spiky blond hair instead of brown. The new figure stood in front of Sora, hands outstretched. “You may have taken over Terra,” the transparent boy shouted, “but you’re not getting hurting this boy’s friends as well!”

“Whaaa?” The duck squawked behind him, and for once Riku had to agree.

The blond boy turned to them. “You have to run! The heartless are coming!”

“But Sora!” Riku said, and the dog grabbed at his arm. Riku shrugged out of it and clutched the Keyblade tighter. “We can’t just leave him! I can control the heartless! It’s fine!”

Sora stopped struggling against the blond boy’s hold and smirked. Suddenly hundreds of heartless began to spew from the doorways of the castle. “I’d like to see you _try_ ,” Sora said, with a shrug. “You never truly embraced the darkness.”

“Run!” the blond boy shouted, faltering. “I can’t hold him back much longer!”

Riku tried to stop some of the heartless but none of them responded to him. He flushed and tried again, attempting to block out the fear that was suddenly welling up inside. “Sora!” he called, moving to step forward but this time Kairi grabbed his arm.

“We need to go!” she said, tugging at his arm. “If we die from these creatures, we’ll never be able to save Sora!”

And after turning again to see Sora arms outstretched and surrounded by heartless, Riku gripped the Keyblade tight and nodded. Grabbing Kairi’s hand, they fled the castle, quickly followed by the dog and the duck.

\--

Riku didn’t say much on the dog and the duck’s (excuse him, Goofy and Donald’s) gummi ship. He was too busy staring down at what used to be Hollow Bastion as it slowly became blacker and blacker as the Heartless overtook it.

Kairi sat beside him, chewing at her lip. “What’s going to happen now?” she said. Without meaning to, Riku summoned the Keyblade. After staring at it for a long moment, he flung it across the ship.

“Hey!” the duck screeched. Riku didn’t even have the heart to snap back at him. “Don’t attack our ship!”

Goofy approached him and rested a hand on Kairi’s shoulder. “If we go back to Traverse Town and meet up with Leon and the gang, I’m sure we’ll be able to save Sora!” he said, before his face fell and he slumped his shoulders. “I hope so.”

Kairi nodded, turning to Riku. “We’ll save him, okay?” she said, giving him a hug. He nodded, feeling numb. “We’ll get him back.”

“Yeah,” he said, summoning the Keyblade again. He stared at it for a long moment, and lowered it, closing his eyes. “I hope so.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So! Here’s another part of this little au. Man. I love this. We rarely got to see Riku angry because he was so calm or tried to be.
> 
> And don’t worry, this many be multi-chaptered but the rough copy is almost done. It’s just easier to edit in sections than one massive story. I'll probably update once or twice a week, or when I get a chance to edit! 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

When they finally made it to Traverse Town and docked the Gummi Ship, Donald stormed out of the Gummi Hanger, while Goofy hung behind with Riku and Kairi.

“I’ll be there in a sec,” Riku said, unable to stop fiddling with the Keyblade. “You guys go on ahead without me.”

Kairi stared at Riku before grabbing one of his arms and hefting him to his feet. “You’re not seriously going to just sit behind and mope here, are you?” She asked, incredulous. “We’re at a new world! Besides, if Donald says that he knows who can help us save Sora–”

“I don’t care what that thing says!” Riku shouted, pulling his arm from her grip. “They abandoned Sora before, and now they’ve done it again! We don’t need their help!”

After a long moment, Kairi huffed and put her hands on her hips. “I’m not really sure what happened since I was asleep but we both know they didn’t abandon Sora.” Riku grumbled. He heard Kairi sigh. “Riku, _we_ didn’t abandon Sora.”

Riku refused to answer, but after a moment, he turned to Goofy. “Which way did the thing go?”

Goofy shot him an annoyed glance but led them off the ship. “Donald’s not gonna like you calling him a thing,” he said with a frown.

“Well,” Riku said lightly, refusing to meet Goofy’s look. “Maybe you guys should have let me on the Gummi ship back when we first met.”

They easily moved through First District. The atmosphere was strange, coming from the random groups of people from all walks of life suddenly being thrown together in this small little town. Some people greeted their group with a friendly wave, and others ignored them entirely.

Kairi’s eyes were wide as she tried to take in every aspect of the world, practically stumbling over Riku and Goofy as they walked. Despite his mood, Riku quirked a small smile. They had always talked about wanting to see the worlds, and finally, they had been able to see at least a few of them.

And then the look on Sora’s face, and more specifically, his _eyes_ , flashed through Riku’s mind, and his smile dropped from his face.

As they walked through the town, Riku faintly heard a squawk and turned, noting a little house just beyond some shops.

“There shouldn’t be any Heartless,” Goofy said with a frown, but headed towards the noise.

Riku almost argued that the duck was a competent mage and he probably didn't even need them, but Kairi hurried after Goofy, so Riku sighed and followed too.

There were two men standing in front of a small house. One looked vaguely familiar, but Riku couldn’t place where he’d seem him before. The other one, covered in far too many belts than one should ever consider necessary (or fashionable) was listening to Donald’s squawking, before noticing the group.

“Goofy,” the man nodded, before his brow furrowed. “Where’s Sora?” Riku subtly moved between the man and Kairi. “And who are you two?”

Before the belted man could answer, the other man glanced over to Riku. It hit Riku like a ton of bricks where he’d seen the man before, and apparently the man remembered him as well. The other man’s eyes widened and he took a step back to the house, but then a little boy burst through the door.

“Leon!” the boy (or _puppet_ , Riku thought with a wince) said, “I didn’t think you’d be back so soon–”

The little boy turned and looked at Riku. He froze, words dying on his lips and he just stared at Riku for what was only a few moments but what felt like eons. He then screamed, loud enough for the sound to carve itself in Riku's mind, and raced back into the house.

Kairi blinked slowly, turning over to Riku, who looked away, caught between embarrassed and horrified. The man who was apparently named Leon man raised an eyebrow.

“Gepetto,” he said. “Do you know them?”

Gepetto gave Riku a dark look. “I don’t want him anywhere near my house! Or near my Pinocchio!” He turned and stormed back inside, slamming the door in their faces.

Leon blinked and turned to Riku. “And you are?”

Riku decided that it was still in his best interest to count the stones on the ground.

Goofy finally stepped in. “He’s a friend of Sora’s,” he said, placing his hands on Riku’s shoulders. Riku shrugged him off, ignoring the look Kairi threw him. “And we need his help to save Sora.”

Leon’s eyes widened and he looked around. “Wait a minute… Save Sora? What happened? And what the hell was _that_?” he asked, nodding towards the house.

The blinds were now closed. Riku scowled, crossing his arms.

Apparently Donald had had enough of this and stomped forward. “Riku tried to steal Pinocchio’s heart when we were in Monstro to save Kairi,” Donald said, and Riku resisted the urge to strange him. “And then Riku tried to kill us and stole Sora’s Keyblade.”

“It wasn’t like that!” Riku hissed. He belated realized he started to move forward, but Kairi quickly grabbed his arm, holding him back. “I wasn’t going to kill Sora!”

“Maybe we should take this inside?” Kairi said, noting the people around them. “Please?”

After a long, long moment, Leon nodded. “We have a house in Third District,” he said, moving forward and grabbing Riku’s shoulder. Riku tried shaking him off and winced when the grip tightened. “You can tell us all about what happened there.”

“Us?” Goofy repeated.

Leon just sighed and dragged Riku alongside him.

\--

Aerith generally tried to stay calm, especially considering Yuffie was practically jumping up and down, Cid was cursing up a storm, and Leon had decided that his best help was to continue to lean against the wall, but there was little that could keep her feeling this way.

Goofy and Donald explained the story, with Riku attempting to add in his perspective only for Donald to talk over him. Aerith could easily see Riku growing angrier and even Kairi next to him wasn’t going easily calm down.

“And now we have Sora whose been possessed by Ansem,” Goofy said frowning. “And Riku wields the Keyblade.”

“ _Stole_ the Keyblade,” Donald added.

Riku jumped out of his chair. “You were willing to follow me because of it!” He shouted and Kairi grabbed his hands. “You were _fine_ leaving Sora to defend himself with a wooden sword!”

“You gave it to him!” Donald shrieked.

“Enough!”

They both turned to Leon, who had apparently decided that holding up the wall wasn’t good enough anymore.

“Riku,” Leon said, and Riku fell back in his chair. “Can we see it?”

Riku pointedly looked away, but held up his hand, and the Keyblade appeared. Every time he summoned it, it felt heavier and heavier.

Nodding, Leon turned to Goofy and Donald. “And your orders were to follow the Keybearer, right?” Leon asked.

“Sora took it back,” Riku interjected, lowering the weapon. “His heart was stronger than mine for an _instant_ and he took it back. But I beat them, and I am the true Keybearer.” He gritted his teeth. “Story time is over. Can we go save him _now_?”

There was a dark laugh and Riku turned to see Cid glaring at him from the corner of the room. “Go save him? You mean save Ansem, the man _behind_ the heartless? And did you forget Maleficent is still at Hollow Bastion?” He shook his head, leaning back and flicked his toothpick. “Going back there is just as good as jumping in a pile of Heartless.”

“I’m not going to _leave_ him,” Riku hissed, jumping to his feet. “We only left because…” he froze, and tried to subtly glance over to Kairi, who had been silent most of this fight.

She sighed. “We were outnumbered,” she said softly. “If we tried to save Sora then, we would have all died.”

“You do have to go back,” Aerith said, and everyone in the room turned to look at her. “If you can save Sora, that’s wonderful, and I do hope it can happen. But… the keyhole. Did Sora or you lock it?”

Riku blinked. “Keyhole? You mean…?” He lifted the weapon and inspected it. “So that’s what it does?”

“You would know that if it was really yours,” Donald muttered. Riku debating chucking the duck out the window.

“Yes,” Aerith said firmly. “And if it isn’t sealed, that world will be overrun.”

“But isn’t it dangerous?” Kairi added, biting her lip. “I mean, if the… Heartless?” She glanced around, and Leon nodded in confirmation. “If they take it over, isn’t it better for them to stay on one world?”

“It just let’s them get stronger,” Leon said. “Besides…” He sighed. “It’s our home world.”

The room went quiet for a bit. Eventually, Riku slammed his hand on the table.

“Look, I messed up,” he said and ignored when Cid laughed again. “But I know Hollow Bastion. I’ve been living there for months. I can slip in, lock the keyhole, and slip out. If I can bring Sora back with me, then I will. If he’s Ansem, I’ll…” Riku sighed. “I’ll do what I can.”

“Take him out?” Cid said, grinning. Riku scowled. “You’re going to take out _Ansem_? Hah!” He leaned forward, and jabbing a finger in Riku’s direction. “We’re not losing two Keyblade wielders just because you’re on some power trip.”

“Power trip?” Riku repeated slowly.

“Yeah!” Yuffie said, stamping her foot. “If you go back, we’re making sure that–”

“I messed up,” Riku said, as if he didn’t even hear her. “You can blame me. I don’t care. But don’t act like none of you played a part in this,” he said, turning to Donald. “Don’t act like you stood behind Sora no matter what. Don’t put me in the villain role just because it suits you!”

“Well,” Cid said, leaning back. “If the shoe fits…”

Riku felt his lips curl into a sneer. “I will go back and lock the keyhole,” he hissed. “And I’ll bring Sora back. Just you watch.”

With that he turned and moved to walk out the house but Kairi grabbed his arm before he could leave.

“Riku,” she said. “They’re just trying to help! Can’t you see that?”

Somewhere, deep down inside, he probably could. He knew Donald and Goofy did care about Sora, and the reason Cid and Leon were so focused was because they were probably afraid of what could happen with that many Heartless running around.

But anytime he tried to give them the benefit of the doubt, he could hear Maleficent whispering in his ear that Sora didn’t need him anymore and Sora had new friends and Riku could see Sora’s _eyes_ and…

Reluctantly, he tugged himself out of Kairi’s grasp and turned back towards the door.

“I’ll be back before you know it,” he said. Instead of opening the door, he closed his eyes, opened a darkness portal and stepped through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oops, I think this is literally the shortest chapter. I'll try to get the next part up as soon as possible!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said I would update once a week and look at me already failing. If it's any condolences, the next chapter is written, but I don't have a chance to make it all shiny yet? But soon!
> 
> Either way, I hope you like it!

Riku never thought he’d be so happy to see the Hollow Bastion castle again as he stumbled out of the darkness portal. Something had happened to the darkness since he’d left, and instead of it almost feeling welcoming and calm, it thrashed and all but attacked him as he raced through the corridor. When he had summoned the Keyblade to defend himself, instead of his normal weapon Soul Eater, the darkness only hit back harder.

He brushed off his clothes and looked around. He had portaled into his old room, or well, if one could call it that. The only proof that it had been his was that there were holes in the wall where he’d punched through in his first days of living in the castle, along with books scattered on the floor.

Stepping over those, he quietly opened the door and, after a quick glanced to see if the coast was clear, rushed out.

He vaguely remembered the layout of the castle. The library was in the section to the left, and the chapel was somewhere to the right, up a confusion labyrinth of portals and summons. He ignored that and went the back way, which was like a giant staircase that he had seen Maleficent stroll up every once in a while.

He moved quietly, trying not to summon his Keyblade unless completely necessary (and missing Soul Eater a _lot_ ), before he managed to make it to the chapel. He peeked inside, noticed it was empty, and kept running.

A Defender heartless suddenly appeared and he winced, summoning the Keyblade. Just a few days ago, he could command them to fight for him. Now…

“Ah!” Riku stumbled back a bit as his left shoulder began to ice up, before throwing a Dark Firaga at one of the heartless. One of them exploded and the other shot flames at him that Riku just managed to dodge. He twirled, cutting it through and stumbling onto the ground when it disappeared.

He dug through his pockets for a potion, but when he came up empty, hastily did a Cure spell. Gritting his teeth, he pushed through the doors and stepped inside, weapon at the ready.

There were empty cases nearby, ones that looked like they could hold specimens or… people. Riku heard noises and he quickly moved behind one of the pillars, trying not to peak around.

“It’s strange to see you as the Keyblade brat,” he heard Maleficent say as they approached and, thankfully, walked past him. Riku inched around the pillar to see Sora walking beside her. He cursed to himself and followed them up the stairs. “But you say the keyhole is complete?”

Sora hummed in agreement. “The princesses may have disappeared but thanks to the boy stabbing his friend and releasing the final princess, the keyhole is complete.” He waved towards the giant glowing heartless emblem, and Riku felt the Keyblade react.

Even if that thing had Sora’s body, it definitely wasn’t him. Riku gripped the Keyblade tighter and inched closer.

Maleficent cackled and Riku’s skin crawled. “Excellent. Once this world has been completely overrun, I shall use the heartless to conquer the other worlds!”

Riku peeked his head up so he could see, and he noted Sora gave Maleficent a look with those dark, orange eyes. “You think you can control the heartless?” he said. “You’re as foolish as that boy, thinking that he could use the darkness against _me_ ,” he said, smiling slightly.

Maleficent rolled her eyes. “You may understand the heartless but they listen to _me_ ,” she argued. “I will use them to–” she paused when Sora hesitated. “What is wrong?”

Sora kept looking around, almost… sniffing? Riku froze from where he was crouched on the stairs. “The boy, Sora,” Sora said, moving away from Maleficent. “It seems as though he's always screaming.” Sora kept moving closer and Riku really had nowhere else to hide. “But he stopped for a moment. He said… _Riku_.”

When Sora stepped away, Riku let out an inaudible sigh of relief that quickly turned into a shout when Sora leapt off the railing and landed in front of him. He tried moving away, summoning the Keyblade, but Sora just grabbed his arm and dragged him up the stairs to the platform, throwing him onto the ground.

“Give Sora back his heart!” Riku shouted, scrambling to his feet and moving to attack but Sora yawned and flicked his hand and Riku was thrown back against the railing.

“And to think I was considering possessing you,” Sora said, shaking his head. “You may be strong but this one has so much _darkness_ in him. I’m so glad you offered him up.”

Riku growled and grabbed the Keyblade, trying to stand up, but suddenly there was an intense pressure on him and he let out a shout, dropping his weapon. Sora approached and gingerly picked it up, inspecting it. “Wait…!” Riku shouted, but he resisted the urge to scream when as that pressure landed on him again. It felt like thousands of heartless toppling onto him. “Stop!”

“Maybe we don’t even need him,” Sora said, turning to Maleficent. “This vessel was a Keybearer. We should just be able to…”

Riku gritted his teeth. “Give it _back_!” he shouted, and the Keyblade vanished from Sora’s hand and appeared in Riku’s. He summoned a lighting spell to hit Sora but the boy just stepped aside and it hit Maleficent instead.

“Why you!” She screamed, moving to step forward. Her eyes flashed dangerously when Sora held up a hand. “Feeling sentimental?” She hissed, stepping close. “That’s what brought this fool down, and it will probably destroy you!”

Sora hummed and looked ay Maleficent. “Maybe,” he said with a small shrug. “But he clearly still has power over the Keyblade compared to this boy. Besides… The king’s lackeys are here.”

Despite his survival instincts telling him not to turn his back on Sora, Riku turned to see Donald, Goofy and… was that _Kairi_ running up from the entrance? 

Goofy skidded to a stop behind Riku, staring at Sora wide eyed. “We thought you could use some help!” He shouted as Donald approached.

“Smart people don’t run off like that,” Donald muttered and Riku scowled despite the situation.

“I was doing fine,” he shot back, but when he realized that his wounds were slowing healing themselves thanks to Donald, he gripped his Keyblade. “Thanks.”

Sora laughed loudly, drawling all of their attention. “You all run so I won’t kill you,” he said, spreading his arms wide. “And yet, you come back here, nice and orderly.” He grinned, and Riku shuddered as Sora’s orange eyes flashed. “How convenient for me.”

“You leave Sora alone!” Kairi shouted, staying a little farther behind.

Sora seemed to not even register her, too busy keeping eye contact with Riku.

“He’s screaming in here,” Sora said, approaching the group. Goofy took a step closer to Riku and Donald squawked something but Sora somehow summoned a barrier so he could approach Riku without them interfering. Sora walked right up to Riku, and when he raised his Keyblade to fight, Sora grabbed Riku’s arm, causing the boy to drop the weapon. “He keeps screaming and shouting, _Riku, Riku can’t you hear me!_ ” Sora tightened his grip and Riku gritted his teeth so he wouldn’t shout in pain. “I wonder how the Keyblade feels, being wielded by someone so _corrupt_ as you.”

“Shut up,” Riku said, trying to struggle out of his grip. Sora smiled and stepped away, and Riku sagged back. “Sora’s stronger than you think,” he added, as Goofy grabbed Riku so he wouldn’t topple over. “He wouldn't give up just like that.”

“Hmm,” Sora said, stepping back. “I wonder…” He shrugged and continued to move until he was beside Maleficent, who looked like she was dying to get in on the action. “I wonder if he is strong enough to beat me. Either way, I’m sure you’ll have more problems soon enough.”

Sora turned, giving Maleficent a long look. She huffed and gripped her staff. “I assume you want _me_ to take care of these fools?” She asked. “No matter. As soon as they’re gone, I shall control the heartless.”

Sora hummed and tilted his head. “I always wondered what you’d be like as a heartless,” he said quietly. “I’m sure your true form would be impressive, but the Keyblade is gone. Alas.”

With a wide smile, Sora plunged his hand into Maleficent’s heart, and a moment later ripped it out. A glowing bauble came out with him, and Sora grinned, stepping away.

“Much more light in here than I originally thought,” he said, summoning a darkness portal. He dropped the bauble to the ground and smiled wider as it shattered. “Alas. Take care of them, will you?” he directed to Maleficent, before walking into the portal.

“Sora!” Riku shouted, trying to break away from Goofy’s grip. “Let me go! I can follow him!”

“We have bigger problems!” Kairi shouted, as Maleficent fell to the ground. “How do we take care of her?!” Riku froze, looking at her, as her cloak covered up her entire body and she fell to her knees, screaming and clawing at the ground. “Riku?!”

“Like we’d take down any other heartless!” Donald shouted, raising his staff. “Stay back, Kairi.”

Kairi gripped her hand. “No! I’m fighting too!”

Riku whipped around, his eyes wide. “Kairi, this isn’t a joke, we don’t have time for-!”

And then Maleficent let out this loud and horrifying shriek and exploded into darkness. In her place, there was a misshapen creature that looked partially like a dragon and partially like shadow heartless. Either way, it was huge and horrifying and Riku really didn’t like their odds.

But he definitely didn’t like their odds when Kairi was standing there _without a weapon_.

“Guys, we have to go!” Riku shouted, moving to defend Kairi. “You shouldn’t have come!”

She scowled and held up her fists. “I can fight just as well as you!”

“Kairi!” he yelled, but felt movement behind him and quickly raised his Keyblade to stop an attack. Before he could hit or defend, the thing spat green fire and Riku screamed as his arm burned.

Kairi’s eyes widened and she stepped forward to help but he waved his hand. “You have to get out of here,” he said, grabbing her arm and trying to drag her back. “Go call Cid and tell them…”

He never got to finish his sentence because the dragon’s tail slammed into him and threw him against the wall on the other side of the room. He crumbled to the ground, but tried to pull himself up, but failed. Donald shouted spell after spell and Goofy spun dangerously in circles with his shield but where was Kairi??

Then he saw the dragon raise a clawed foot, and Kairi stood beneath it, backing up until she was against the railing.

“Kairi!” He shouted, and tried to climb to his feet. “Run!”

Goofy turned to see her and moved to protect her but the clawed foot of the dragon slammed down on her and Riku stopped short.

“Kairi!” he screamed and forced himself to get up, despite the pain in his leg.

Suddenly the dragon let out a shriek and stumbled back, almost falling down the stairs. Riku all but threw himself to the side to get out of its path, and watched it fall, exploding into darkness as it landed.

He quickly turned to the platform only to see Kairi standing there, holding something that looked like a Keyblade in her hand. Blinking, he limped up to the three of them as Kairi stared at the weapon as well.

“What,” He said, eyes wide. “Is that?”

She was grinning, eyes shining as she inspected it. “I dunno! I just felt something… warm inside of me and I raised my arms to stop the attack and… this appeared.” It was golden and pink and covered in flowers and if Riku had to pick a Keyblade for Kairi, that would be it.

But there was the issue of a _Keyblade_?

“How… do you have one?” he asked, looking at the one he was currently using as a crutch. Kairi suddenly realized that Riku was moments from collapsing and dropped hers, moving to grab him. He collapsed onto her, and they knelt on the platform, but he couldn’t stop staring at golden and pink Keyblade. “I thought I was the only Keyblade wielder?”

Donald huffed and suddenly Riku felt his bones mending and the cuts on his skin coming back together. “I guess there’s a lot more to the Keyblade that we don’t know,” he said and waddled over to the railing. “And I guess she’s gone.”

“Yep,” Goofy said, patting Kairi on the back. “Nice going for your first fight!”

Riku nodded slowly in agreement. Suddenly his vision went black and the ground rushed up to meet him.

\--

The first thing Riku saw when he opened his eyes was Kairi sitting next to him, talking someone on his other side. When she noticed he was awake, she grinned. “Riku you lazy bum. Leaving everyone else to do the work.”

He grumbled and tried to quickly sit up, but felt someone’s hands on his back. He turned to see Aerith smiling at him, gently but forcefully making him lean back.

“I wasn’t quite done,” she said.

He could faintly see Yuffie standing over to the side, talking with Leon, who looked a little banged up, and Goofy and Donald. “What happened?” he asked, rubbing his head and wincing.

“Well,” Aerith began, but Kairi cut in, grinning.

“You passed out and Donald began freaking out and then we called Cid from the gummi ship and on the way back we found _princesses_ and _then_ Leon and Goofy and Donald took out the monster inside the Keyhole and they did but now they said they need a Keyblader to seal it and they said I could do it but…” she paused, and sat back when she realized Riku’s eyes kept widened with every new word. “Uh. I thought we could try sealing the Keyhole together. I mean,” she shrugged and smiled. “It’s not like either of us have done it before?”

He blinked slowly, before tugging himself out of Aerith’s hold. “Okay,” he said, rubbing his head. “Does anyone know what happened to Sora?”

Kairi frowned but Leon approached the group. “Before we came over, Cid said there were readings of another world just beyond this one,” he said with a frown. “We think that’s where Sora, or, well, Ansem may hiding.”

Riku sat up nodded and tried to sit up. “Great. I’ll—”

“Oh no you don’t,” Kairi said, hands on her hips. “There’s no ‘I.’ _We’re_ coming with you. Look at what happened last time!”

“I don’t want you to get hurt,” Riku said, turning to look at the ground. “And you almost got …squished by a heartless dragon and it would’ve been on me.” He gripped his hand tightly. “What happened to Sora was already my fault. I’m not going to let you get hurt too.”

She went quiet for so long that Riku eventually looked up at her, but by then she had flung her arms around his neck. “Riku,” she said softly, and he hugged her tightly. “We’re going to save him, okay?”

“You two aren’t going anywhere without some training,” Leon said, crossing his arms. “And before you argue with me, Riku, sure, you can fight. But she can’t. But two Keybladers are better than one, so we might as well use you both.”

“Speaking of both,” Aerith said, standing and dusting off her skirt. “Shouldn’t they be closing the Keyhole?”

Riku pulled away from Kairi and shrugged. “You might as well do it,” he said, with a slight frown. “I’m not sure I’m really worthy of the Keyblade anyway.”

Kairi rolled her eyes and tugged him to his feet, mindful when he winced slightly. “If we both can use Keyblades, then we’re both worthy,” she said with a smile. “And when Sora gets back, maybe he’ll be able to summon his own Keyblade too! And then we can all fight together.”

He stared at her for a long time, before nodding and rubbing his arm.

She grinned and turned to Leon, who was giving them both an amused look. “So, the keyhole?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I should really change the summary for this fic. Like, "If you wanna see Riku and Kairi team up with Goofy and Donald and kick butt to save Sora, read this!"
> 
> Come find me on [tumblr](http://legendaryguardian.tumblr.com/)!


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we’re just trucking along on this world adventure of the trio minus Sora-nort. Who I realize is Sora-Ansem but Sora-nort has a nicer ring to it. We’re almost at the end!
> 
> Also props to Microsoft Word for now recognizing “Keyblade” as a real word. It only took me typing it five billion times. :D

Training with Kairi was… different. It wasn’t like she was used to fighting in general. When Riku and Sora had fought with wooden swords, she'd spent most of her time playing with Selphie, but she was nothing but diligent about learning how to fight. Anytime she’d move in for an attack, she would hesitate, and Riku had to learn to not jump in and take out whatever heartless was in front of her. Even if it took her a half a second longer, she ended up taking the creature out, and every time she did, Riku felt a small swell of pride.

Donald and Goofy ended up taking them to Wonderland, a crazy world about a strange Queen who screamed and shouted about beheadings a lot. Goofy claimed that it had the weakest heartless, so it would be perfect to train Kairi. Then again, Riku still didn’t trust Donald all that much, so when he had been all, “Drink this suspicious looking potion, it’ll be fine,” Riku had hesitated and threw Kairi a look. Kairi, in turn, had rolled her eyes, drunk it, and shrieked when she shrank to barely an inch tall.

“Riku!” Goofy shouted. Riku blinked, forcing himself to focus on the battle at hand, and grumbled to himself, lowering his Keyblade. “You need to stop using them dark powers!”

Riku turned back to the heartless he’d been fighting, noting how they’d been charred with his Dark Firaga attack. “Oops,” he said, with a shrug. “What does it matter anyway?”

Donald approached, his eyes narrowing. “It _does_ ,” he said and Riku resisted that familiar urge to punt him.

Wiping her brow, Kairi approached. “I mean,” she said, lowering her Keyblade. “If we fight Sor-” she paused, frowned, and tried again. “Ansem understands the darkness. If you’re using dark attacks, aren’t you afraid of him, like, feeling it and coming here?” He paused in taking a drink, and turned to her. She shrugged. “It’s always a possibility.”

He raised his hand to his face and, without even thinking about it, summoned some green fire. Even though he’d been healed multiple times since the fight with Maleficent, his shoulder still burned where he’d been hit and he let the fire in his hand dissipate. “I guess I’ll try to stop,” he said muttered, gripping his hand.

Without another word he turned and moved to the back of the forest.

After only a few moments, he heard faint footsteps behind him and sighed when Kairi fell into step beside him. “Don’t mope,” she said, poking his side. “It’s not cute.”

“What if I can only fight using dark powers?” he said, scowling slightly. “What if we can’t save Sora?” She went quiet for a long moment. Suddenly Riku felt a painful finger jab his side. “Hey!”

“We _will_ save Sora,” she said, giving him a harsh look. “Even if you’re all pessimistic.” She walked in front of him and stopped him in his tracks, placing her hands on his shoulders. “Look, I get you did all that … _stuff_ to save me. And even if it was horrible, I get it, and thank you for trying to save me. But you can’t beat yourself up for it forever!”

Riku didn’t even know how to respond to that, so he ended up pulling himself onto of a small mushroom. Kairi tried to sit next to him, but struggled at the height difference. With a small laugh, he tugged her beside him.

“I just…” he said, leaning forward on his knees. “Sora was right. I kidnapped some poor girl, I almost let that puppet _die_ , and I was probably willing to take him out. I guess…” he closed his eyes and sighed.

Kairi rested a hand on his shoulder. “You guess?”

“If I give up my dark powers and the Keyblade realizes I was never meant to _be_ a wielder this whole time, and then we go to save Sora and I can’t and…” Riku covered his face. “I already lost Sora once. I can’t lose him again.”

“We.” Riku uncovered his eyes and looked over to Kairi, who was staring at him intensely. “I know a lot of stuff happened when I was asleep or whatever, but _we_ lost Sora. And I know they’re not your favorite,” Riku resisted the urge to snort, “but Donald and Goofy lost him too. But all of us will get him back. But!” She punched his shoulder, and Riku gave her a look. “You can’t run off on your own all the time! We’re your friends. We got this!”

After a long time, Riku nodded slowly. “Thanks Kairi.”

She giggled and leaned back. “You’re welcome.”

\--

As Kairi slowly grew stronger, Riku worked to stop using his dark powers. He also worked to stop secretly setting Donald on fire. Even if the duck was significantly less annoying than he had been, that was probably an urge Riku would never let go.

Despite Riku’s intentions, Goofy and Donald had managed to drag (or gently coerce, as Kairi would say), them both throughout some worlds in an attempt to help Kairi grow stronger. They stayed clear of giant whales in the sky, and even Neverland, for fear of it being too close to Hollow Bastion. And even though it was kind of weird that Riku would more often than not turn around and see Kairi take out a heartless, it was kind of cool.

“You know,” he said, as Goofy piloted the ship through some rough heartless territory. “If you were always this good of a fighter, why didn’t you ever spar with Sora and I?”

Kairi snorted and nudged Riku in his seat, grinning when he had to fight the scowl off his face. “And not have the chance to watch you two fight over me? As if.”

“We weren’t…” he trailed off when she burst out laughing, eyes crinkling at the corners. He crossed his arms, and leaned back in his seat, content. “Okay fine. Maybe you were the final prize. But you could’ve said something.”

She hummed and leaned forward in her seat. “True, but I’m not some prize to be won. Besides,” she said, waving a hand. “I was busy with other things. Like trying to make sure we’d survive on that raft.” Riku rolled his eyes but grinned despite himself, and Kairi laughed again. “We would have probably died if we had actually gone on it.”

“Probably,” he said. Suddenly, the ship rocketed to the side and Riku gripped the edge of his seat. “Goofy, what’s happening?”

“The heartless are ramming the ship!” came the frantic reply.

Riku made short work of his seatbelt and, ignoring Kairi’s hand, moved to the front of the ship to see Goofy struggling with the controls and Donald squawking beside him. “Lemme just,” he said, moving to take the wheel. 

The ship rocked to the side again and he gripped at the controls.

“Riku!” Kairi shouted.

He gritted his teeth and stared through the windshield, noting the various types of heartless gummi ships. Gripping his hand, he stood up straight and focused all his energy into gummi space, willing the heartless to stay away from the ship.

That seemed to work for a bit, and Riku relaxed ever so slightly, and turned to look at Kairi. She gave a nervous grin, and gripped her seatbelt tighter.

There was a soft chuckle and Riku turned, looking around to see where it could have come from. The others were all preoccupied keeping the ship upright, and then he heard the laugh again, and Riku’s stomach dropped. That laugh... it sounded just like Sora’s.

_Did you really think you had any control at all?_

Alarms around him exploded into loud shrieks as he turned to the front of the ship to see a large heartless ship aimed right for them. Riku immediately grabbed at the wheel alongside Goofy and together they tried to steer the ship just out of the course of a massive heartless ship that had suddenly appeared in their path. Despite their efforts, the larger ship grazed theirs and there was a loud crunching sound.

Goofy and Riku exchanged looks as Donald squawked and Kairi suddenly appeared, stumbling as the ship started to plummet.

“Kairi, go sit back–” Riku started. Kairi practically shoved him aside, quickly scanned over the controls and started typing. Her fingers flew over the keys as the ship’s alarm system blared and all Riku could do was hold onto the wheel with Goofy, trying to keep the ship from spinning out of control.

“There’s a world just ahead,” Kairi said, her voice calm despite the situation (and Donald’s shrieks). “It doesn’t look like a great place but if you guys can turn the ship just…” she glanced down and typed more. “A few degrees to the left? We might be able to land there. Otherwise, we’re going to spin out in gummi space and the ship might tear apart.”

Riku was about to argue something inane, like what if the world wasn’t safe or where the the _hell_ did she learn about gummi controls, when Goofy said, “You said the left?” and started turning the wheel. Riku moved to help him, grimacing as the ship resisted the turn. “Everyone might want to hang on to something!”

The world appeared at a much faster than Riku felt comfortable, and Riku gritted his teeth, but kept his grip on the wheel. Donald leaned onto the control panel next to Kairi. “Hang on!” the duck yelled, and Kairi gripped one hand onto the control panel, other still furiously typing.

And suddenly there was a loud crunch of metal and Riku felt himself being rocketed forward. Before he could actually be thrown onto the windshield or tossed out into space, he felt three hands grabbing at his arm, tugging him back. Goofy ended up letting go of the wheel and grabbing Riku with both hands and all four fell against the front controls as the ship crashed.

After a few painful bumps, loud groans from the ship, and one incredibly intense booming sound, Donald yelled, “Is everyone okay?”

Kairi burst out into nervous giggles.

“That could have gone better,” Riku said, picking himself up with a wince. He rotated his arm slowly and when it suddenly felt healed, he glanced down to the duck. “…Thanks.”

Kairi slowly climbed to her feet and helped to tug Goofy up. “Well,” she said, staring at the remains of the gummi ship. “I certainly hope that there’s something on this world, because I think this ship is trashed.”

“Chip and Dale are gonna be so mad,” Goofy said with a frown, turning to the now destroyed communications link.

“Well, let’s check out the world, and maybe someone will be out there to help us?” Kairi said, summoning her Keyblade warily.

Donald waddled up next to her. “The scanner didn’t say there was signs of life behind Hollow Bastion. Just…” Both he and Goofy turned to look at Riku, and eventually Kairi did too.

Riku ignored them and summoned the Keyblade, attempting to pry open one of the doors. “If Sora _is_ here,” he said, tugging at the handle. “Or Ansem, or whatever. I’ll be sure to take him out.”

When the door didn’t open, Riku moved to hit it with his Keyblade. Kairi appeared, and after giving Riku a look, they both tried the door again and it wretched open. He huffed and turned to look at her and she sighed.

“We will,” she said softly. “Together.”

After a long moment, he nodded, and all four of them walked out onto the world.

\--

They fought through what felt like endless waves of heartless before they all jumped into a small portal and landed in an empty version of Traverse Town. Riku looked around, shocked and half expecting to see Leon or anyone pop up when a group of heartless suddenly appeared and he focused on them.

“This is where we first met Riku!” Goofy exclaimed, as Kairi sliced into the last heartless. She let out a huff and leaned onto her Keyblade, as Riku let his disappear.

“Yeah,” Riku shot back, attempting to curve back his animosity. “And this is where you guys wouldn’t let me join you.”

“Not with how you just crashed our ship,” Donald said and Riku narrowed his eyes. Joke or not, it wasn’t funny coming from the fowl.

Kairi rolled her eyes. “And then Riku tried to murder a puppet to save me but first ended up fighting alongside you guys inside a giant space whale. We know.” She shook her head and dug a potion out of her pocket, tossing it to Riku. He blinked, catching it, and she gestured at his arm. He didn’t even realize it was bleeding. “Riku. I understand your animosity towards Donald," she said, and Donald squawked indignantly. "But, we’re on a mission to save Sora now and there’s a lot of heartless and like…” She huffed. “Let’s focus on that, then we can try to murder each other later, okay?”

They all went quiet for a bit, but as the portal appeared for them to leave Traverse Town, Riku added, “Did I mentioned I kidnapped a princess?”

“God, Riku, _yes_. Like seven times. I’ll kick your ass for it later.”

\--

They continued throughout the portals into the worlds, and before they stepped through again, Kairi always took a long look around. When they finally got to Neverland, she did it again, and Riku slid next to her.

“I just wish we could’ve gone to all of these worlds,” she said, before frowning. “I mean, I know you guys trained me in some of them but we didn’t get to go to all of them. And it would’ve been nice to see them with Sora too.” She sighed, leaning against a railing.

Riku went silent for a long moment, watching Goofy and Donald bicker over a treasure chest, before saying, “I made a heartless of Sora here.” Kairi glanced over to him and he sighed. “I _know_ I keep telling you of everything I messed up on but it’s _my_ fault Sora’s like that and… I was so…” he went quiet, running a hand through his hair. “I dunno. I thought I would save you but I just made everything worse.”

“Heartless of Sora?” Kairi said, raising an eyebrow. “How?” Riku sighed again and raised a hand and she grabbed it, her Keyblade clattering to the ground. “Please don’t actually  _demonstrate_.”

He nodded, lowering his hand. “I guess I thought it was funny? I dunno. He got a chance to see all these worlds and explore and make new friends, while I was busy slipping through secret passageways and kidnapping people. I wanted him to feel unwelcome in a world just once.”

There’s a laugh that sounds but like “a’hyuck,” and Kairi and Riku looked up to see Goofy approaching. Donald stayed behind wit the treasure chest, whacking it with his staff. “Well, maybe after we save Sora, we can go through all the worlds together!” Goofy said, before glancing around and frowning. “After the ship is all fixed, that is.”

Kairi giggled and grabbed her Keyblade off the floor. “That’ll be fun,” she said, nudging Riku. He quirked his lip but didn’t respond.

“Besides,” Goofy added. “We gotta teach you guys how to fly!”

Kairi’s eyes widened and she leaned against the railing. “Wait, fly? Like really?”

Apparently giving up on the chest, Donald waddled up and squawked in agreement. “Peter Pan showed us how to fly when we took down Captain Hook!” he said. “Sora said he wanted to teach you, Kairi.”

She kept grinning and turned over to Riku. “See? He was still thinking of us even when we weren’t there,” she said. Riku allowed himself the beginnings of a smile but that was dashed when Donald started shaking his head.

“Nope, he didn’t say Riku.”

Riku fixed him a look, before pushing himself off the railing and heading towards the portal exit. He could tell that Kairi was rushing behind him to catch up and Goofy was scolding Donald but he didn’t really feel like hearing it. The duck was right. It didn’t matter that he _now_ wanted to make amends, he had messed up -

“Ow!” He said, wincing and rubbing his head as Kairi lowered her Keyblade. “You didn’t have to hit me!”

She shrugged. “We need you in tip top shape to save Sora. Mope later.”

He grumbled and continued heading towards the portal, but when she looped her arm with his, he didn’t tug away.

\--

When the next world (or portal thing?) didn’t have any heartless, it put all of them on edge, which was justly rewarded when a ginormous hell monster popped up from a mountain. As Kairi floated next to Riku, she shouted, “I guess we get to fly now, huh?”

He didn’t respond, already jumping (or flying, he supposed) out of the way from an attack.

Between Donald’s magic, Goofy and Riku’s heavy hits, and Kairi dabbling in both, they managed to defeat the monster with little fanfare. It screamed, raised its arms to the heavens, unfurled its wings to their fullest wingspan, and erupted into blue flames. Kairi glanced over to the rest of the group, most of whom were breathing heavily, and said, “So… what was that?”

Donald and Goofy shrugged, as did Riku. “It can’t be a heartless. I’ve never seen it before,” Riku said, nodding when Goofy handed him a potion. “You guys?”

“Nope,” Goofy said, glancing down to the mountain. “That sure was strange.”

“Huh,” Kairi added. With a shrug, she started to fly down into the mountain and Riku quickly caught up. “Come on, we don’t want to stay here all day. Besides. He…” she frowned. “She? It? Might come back. But seriously, what _was_ that thing?”

They followed Kairi into the mountain, where another wave of heartless met them. “I guess we’re getting close,” Riku said, dodging from an angel heartless and wincing when a shadow struck him. “Otherwise, there wouldn’t be this _many_.”

“But it’s just good practice right?” Kairi shouted from her side of the room. Riku cursed to himself and moved to help defend her but by the time he approached, she was grinning and collecting munny for herself. She gave him a wary look. “Don’t you try to take my spoils.”

He rolled his eyes and turned back to the battle.

When all the heartless were defeated, they quickly headed to the final room, where there was only a door. “Come on,” Kairi said, reaching for the handle. “What could be next?”

Before she actually touched the handle, Riku had a weird feeling of someone rummaging around in his head, kind of like when he had heard the voice on the Gummi Ship. He gritted his teeth and instantly summoned his Keyblade. Kairi jumped away from the door to look back at him but he didn’t notice.

_You’re not the Keyblade wielder I first talked to!_

“Who’s there?” Riku shouted, turning around. Kairi shot Goofy and Donald worried looks.

_And there’s two of you. Oh! You’re Sora’s friends!_

“You know Sora?” Riku said, gripping his weapon tighter. “Where is he? Who are you?!”

If anything, the voice grew even friendly, which was a weird thing to think about a strange voice inside one’s head. _Don’t worry. He’ll be alright. With your power, you will be the one to open the door to the light_.

“The what?” Riku said, but the voice went silent. He blinked, shaking his head and looking at the group, letting his weapon disappear. “I… I heard a voice and it said they knew Sora?”

Donald rolled his eyes. “Maybe you need to rest!”

Riku didn’t even know how react to that and just shook his head. “No I… I’m good. Kairi?” He turned to her and nodded. “You ready?”

She grinned. “Never better,” she said, and yanked the door open. Light flooded the room, but Riku managed to find Kairi’s hand and they all walked through.

It felt like it took an eon and a day for their eyes to adjust to the light, but when they did, Kairi let out a small shriek. Riku blinked his eyes open and when he could finally see properly again, he gasped.

“Is this…” He started, walking out onto the sand and towards the water. “What are we doing at Destiny Islands?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I always have this mindset that Kairi never took Riku's shit. Like, when he was all "mysterious" in KH2 and tried to leave Sora and her behind, she was like "LOL nope revealing your identity yo."
> 
> Also Kairi learned all that Gummi Ship stuff by actually listening to Chip and Dale. I mean, I know I didn't, so props to her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, we've made it to the end! Sorry this runs a little longer than the other chapters, but I figured it was easier to have one long one than to break it up. :) Notes at the end!

Kairi let go of Riku’s arm and ran out onto the beach. “How is this even possible?” She asked, turning back to them with a grin. “Can we possibly be home?”

Riku followed tentatively, with Donald and Goofy close behind. “I dunno,” he said, looking around. He summoned his Keyblade, making sure to keep it close. “Something seems off.”

“Like those other worlds we went to,” Goofy said, nodding. “’Cept this one isn’t filled with heartless.”

“Well,” Donald said, waddling beside them. “Let’s check it out.”

The shock of being back on Destiny Island, even if it might be a _fake_ Destiny Island, made Riku forget his annoyance at Donald, but he slowly followed the duck. It wasn’t going to be hard to check the island. Unless there were heartless hiding on the other side, then that would mean the heartless were on the Main Land. That made him shiver.

“Riku.”

Riku shook his head and turned to Kairi, half expecting to see some heartless ready to attack. But instead, she nodded towards the smaller island, attached only by the bridge from the shack. He almost turned to her, because if there were no heartless, they should check the other side, but then he froze.

Sitting on the paopu tree, facing away from the four of them and staring at the ocean, was Sora.

Riku’s eyes widened and his gripped his Keyblade tighter. Donald and Goofy finally noticed what they were looking at, and he nodded towards the shack. “Maybe we can sneak up on him?” Riku asked quietly.

Donald rolled his eyes and yep, the desire to punt him was coming back. “Not if he’s Ansem!” he said, like Riku was an idiot.

Kairi glanced back at the small island, and started heading towards the shack. The rest followed her. “He hasn’t moved since we’ve arrived,” she said, quietly opening the door and letting Donald and Goofy in. When Riku made to move past her, she grabbed his arm and gave him a look. “Please, be careful,” she said.

With a nod, they attempted to quietly creak up the stairs, but even when they opened the top door, Sora didn’t turn around. They approached the smaller island, weapons at the ready. Riku somehow edged his way to the front of the group, and his grip on the Keyblade grew tighter with every step closer he made.

But as he approached, there was a loud creak and groan and he turned to see Donald wincing as a board from the bridge snapped off and crashed into the ocean below. Riku almost said something, wanted to reprimand the duck, when Kairi gasped and Riku turned.

“Sora?” Kairi said, as Riku finally focused back on the island. “Is that really you?”

The boy’s eyes were a brilliant blue and he looked both relieved and surprised to see the group. “Guys!” Sora shouted, waving. “You finally got here!”

Despite Kairi’s warnings about being careful and not doing anything _stupid_ , Riku could feel his Keyblade slip from his hands as he raced onto the island. He approached the tree and stared up at Sora, who was beaming down at him. “You’re… you’re okay?” he said, reaching towards him.

He didn’t know if he was reaching out to see if Sora was actually there, fearing that if Riku touched him, he’d fall through the boy like a ghost. But Sora leaned down, and let Riku’s hand cup his face. “I’m here,” Sora said with a grin. “You guys took forever!”

Riku really, _really_ wanted to believe that Sora was fine and that the whole mishap at Hollow Bastion was just a really bad dream. Maybe he’d turn around and Kairi would be yelling at them to work on the raft, and Donald and Goofy would have been just figments of their imagination.

“Was all of this just to save me?” Sora said, his smile almost blinding. Riku closed his eyes and wanted to just revel in this moment.

Suddenly Riku realized that Kairi hadn’t said anything, and specifically, hadn’t said anything about Sora being okay, and his eyes snapped open and he turned to the bridge. Kairi had her Keyblade out and was repeated attacking what seemed to be nothing, while Goofy was doing the same with his shield. Donald caught his eye and starting shouting something and Riku couldn't hear a single word he said.

And for once that terrified him.

He quickly turned back to Sora who had dropped the smile and suddenly looked bored. “You know,” Sora said. “I really didn’t think you’d fall for that.”

Riku tried to pull his hand away as quickly as possibly but Sora flicked his hand and suddenly Riku was flung him against the barrier Kairi and the others were attacking. He slammed against it hard and gasped. He tried to scramble to his feet but something picked him up again, and flung him again, this time against the barrier that was facing the sea.

He grasped at the sand, trying to find some leverage so he could _move_ and fight back, when he noticed Sora standing above him, giving him an odd look. “It’s so strange,” Sora said, kneeling beside Riku. “I changed the color of his eyes and I let him sound normal and you believed it. You really wanted it to be real, didn’t you?”

Riku growled and tried to summon his Keyblade. He felt more than heard the clang of the weapon hitting the barrier that surrounded the small island and turned to Sora again, who was still regarding him curiously.

“Give Sora back,” Riku hissed, gripping his fists.

Sora smiled. “You once asked this boy how would he could fight without a Keyblade,” Sora said, leaning down. Riku tried to get out of the way but Sora gripped his arm tight. Riku tried in vain to break free. “And now, you are in the same predicament. How funny.”

Before Riku could shout something back about anything, Sora sighed and plunged his hand into Riku’s chest. Time seemed to stop as Riku’s eyes widened and he helplessly flailed around to grab something, _anything_ , that could help him fight. But there was nothing he could reach and he choked out a gasp, turning ever so slightly to see Kairi’s eyes widened.

“No, Riku, look at _me_ ,” Sora said, moving his head back. Riku tried to shout but he couldn’t get a sound to emerge past his lips. Nothing besides a few quick breaths but even those felt difficult. “You’re an odd one. Your heart is so filled with darkness but I can see a small light within. And,” Sora brushed Riku’s hair aside, just as he tightened his grip on something in Riku’s chest. If he could, Riku would've screamed. “I think this boy is the reason for that light. I’ve heard stories about controlling one Keybearer.” Sora smiled again and leaned down, maintaining eye contact. “I wonder what I could do with two in my pocket?”

There was a loud crash from behind them. Sora snapped his head up, before rolling his eyes, which had suddenly reverted back to the normal orange color. It was funny how quickly Riku had taken that to be normal. Riku sucked in a loud breath as Sora released his heart and removed his hand from his chest.

“Princesses,” Sora said, crossing his arms. “Should learn their place.”

He vanished as Kairi ran up, Keyblade at the ready. She quickly turned around in a vain attempt to find him again, before dropping to her knees.

“Riku!” She said, propping him up. “Are you okay?”

He grabbed at his chest, feeling around for a hole. “Yeah,” he said, gasping. Goofy ran up and threw him a potion, which he fumbled around with before drinking it. The effects weren’t that useful, only topping off a small bit of his health, but Riku couldn’t stop shaking. “What happened to you guys?”

“He threw up a barrier as soon as you stepped on the island,” she said, wrapping an arm around him and helping him to his feet. “He has to still be here. I know it.”

He nodded and summoned his Keyblade, feeling comforted by it in his hand, as they moved to cross the bridge again. There was another loud crash and Riku glanced around only to see that half of the island looked like it was imploding. The ground started violently shaking as well and he glanced down to the sand before making up his mind.

Grabbing at the edge of the bridge, he jumped down onto the sand, before raising an arm up for Kairi. She hopped down as well, followed by Donald and Goofy, and Riku tried to cover her as the shaking got even worse.

“What is this?” She shouted, the only way she’d be heard at all. “This didn’t happen in the other worlds!”

“Ansem wasn’t there!” he shouted back, covered her head with his arms.

And then, as soon as it started did it… stop. Riku didn’t move, in case something crashed above their heads (like how did the bridge not land on them?). Instead, everything went deathly quiet. After a long moment, he raised his arms and looked up, jumping to his feet in shock.

The island was torn apart. The smaller island he had just been on was gone, along with the bridge they’d been running across. The shack was in shambles. The beach itself was ripped up and cracked and the water, which had always been a clear beautiful blue, was now a disgusting murky purplish black color.

He heard Kairi gasp and Donald mutter “Wow” as he looked around, trying to figure out how much damage there was when he noticed a person standing down by the water.

“Is that…?” Goofy said, squinting. Riku took a step forward and felt Kairi grab his arm.

“Don’t run off again,” she said. Her expression was hard, but her voice cracked and she gripped his arm tighter. “I can’t lose you too.”

With a short nod, he summoned his Keyblade again, and they all tentatively approached the figure. As they got closer, it was obvious it was Sora, due to the spiky hair, but the outfit. It looked like what Riku had fought Sora in the first time.

He could feel Donald staring at him but Riku ignored it, pushing forward.

“I know you’re in there!” Kairi shouted, her hand gripping her weapon tightly. Taking out heartless and fighting faceless enemies weren’t a good way to practice fighting your best friend, but she’d push through.

“It is strange,” Sora said, his voice taking on that dual tone it had back in Hollow Bastion. Riku shivered. “I always thought you would be the perfect vessel, Riku. You reached out to me after being trapped on this island. You wanted to strike down your friend for being stronger than you for an _instant_. And yet, here we are.”

Sora turned and Riku’s eyes narrowed but before he could even get used to seeing Sora like that again, he suddenly vanished and a tall, dark skinned man with long white hair appeared in his place.

“Sora!” Riku called, despite trying to stay calm. “What did you do to him?”

The man scoffed. “I have no more use for him. His heart belongs again to darkness.”

Donald squawked. “Who are you?” he said, gripping his staff tightly.

“I am Ansem,” the man said, raising his hands. “Or are you so quick to forget a voice?” He laughed and it felt like nails on a chalkboard. “Perhaps you will forget it when you have vanished to the darkness alongside the boy.”

Riku gritted his teeth, but only gripped his weapon. “You’re wrong,” he finally said, and Ansem gave him a curious look. “Sora is a lot stronger than you give him credit for. Even though you dragged him into the darkness, his light probably can outshine it.” Ansem gave him a long hard stare, and for some reason, Riku decided that he should keep going. “Darkness can change. I used to only fight with it, and I now have…” he turned, looked at Kairi, Goofy, and even spared a short glance for Donald. “I have friends that watch my back. If a Keyblade can accept me as a wielder, then somewhere, even in the deepest darkness, there has to be some kind of light.”

“You’re going to pay for what you did to Sora,” Kairi said, pointing her Keyblade at Ansem. 

Goofy and Donald yelled in agreement but were quickly cut off as Ansem’s eyes widened angrily.

“You’ve come this far and still you understand nothing?” Ansem asked, dangerously quiet. He raised his arms and Riku moved to defend, but Ansem only managed to float a few feet off the ground. “Every light must fade. Every heart return to darkness!”

A giant heartless suddenly appeared behind him and Ansem and the heartless zoomed forward. Riku tried to get out of the way but he was thrown back and crashed into the remains of the shack. He scrambled to his feet and raced down the beach, resisting the temptation to throw a Dark Firaga behind him.

Even though the battle had literally just begun, Donald was already knocked out, so Riku rummaged in his pockets and threw him a potion. Once the magician was up, Riku ran ahead and tried attack but realized very, very quickly that Ansem wasn’t even going after Goofy or Kairi. As soon as Riku was back in the play, the heartless attempted to grab at him, which he rolled away from.

Goofy and Kairi exchanged looks. Kairi fell back and used offensive spells alongside Donald; Goofy stayed on the offense, slamming his shield into Ansem whenever he was close; Riku spent most of the fight attempting to dodge roll away from Ansem. Anytime he moved to attack, that heartless would jump from behind Ansem and attempt to slice him clean open, and Riku grumbled, and resigned to staying out of the way.

Before long (had they really trained Kairi so well?), Ansem was slumping over, and Riku took his chance and raised his Keyblade and cut him clean across the chest. As he did, Ansem looked, caught Riku’s eye, and …smiled?

As Ansem flew back and ended up destroying another section of the island, Riku moved to follow him, to give him the final hit.

“Riku!”

He turned around, just in time to see a ginormous heartless moving to attack them but as he tried to run back and help them fight, he felt that damned heartless that had been behind Ansem earlier cut into his chest. He gasped, dropping his Keyblade, and tried to get away but the heartless lifted him a few feet off the ground as Ansem started attacking him. Riku could feel every single cut and couldn’t tell how loudly he was screaming, only that there was this loud buzzing in his ear and if he didn’t get a potion soon he would probably die or vanish into the darkness.

Some part of him accepted that and then he realized that if he never looked for adventure, the islands would have been safe. Maybe if he disappeared, he could find Sora, and maybe –

“Riku! Snap out of it!”

Riku’s eyes snapped open as Ansem stumbled away as Kairi hopped over the barrier and sliced through the heartless, before turning quickly and performing Curaga on Riku. As he collapsed on the ground, fumbling for his Keyblade, she scowled at him.

“What did I say about running off!” she shouted, before rushing after Ansem.

A quick glance backwards showed that Goofy and Donald were successfully taking out the huge heartless (or well. Goofy was. Donald had passed out again). Shaking his head, Riku chucked a potion towards the duck and laughed despite himself when the duck squawked back to life.

They could actually win this. By actually trusting people, they could really win.

\--

Or…maybe not.

After defeating Ansem _again_ , the island vanished beneath their feet. Goofy and Donald were too far for him to see, but Kairi was right in front of him, after giving Ansem the final blow. He grappled for her hand as they fell into the never-ending darkness.

“Maybe we’ll get to fly again!” she shouted, as he gripped her hand tight and they continued falling.

Eventually they stopped. He would've have said landed but they were standing on nothing but darkness. Either way, Goofy and Donald were nearby and he let go of Kairi’s hand. “Where are we?” he said, looking around.

“Behold the endless abyss. Within it lies the heart of all worlds. _Kingdom Hearts_.” They all stopped and turned, frantically trying to find where Ansem’s voice was coming from. “Look as hard as you are able. You will not be able to find even the smallest glimmer of light. It matters not how bright your heart shine, they will always return to the dark.”

And then a huge monolith of a creation appeared out of nowhere in front of them, with Ansem somehow attached to the top. Kairi gasped and Riku’s eyes widened and Ansem shouted, “Darkness conquers all worlds!”

Before Riku could comprehend what the _hell_ he was seeing, the ground that wasn’t even beneath them vanished. Goofy and Donald shrieked, falling in one direction and Kairi screamed, reaching in vain for Riku. He couldn’t even yell, too shocked at what was happening.

Maybe this would be where it ended. Maybe this really was his punishment for using the darkness, for letting Sora be taken over, for dragging Kairi into this. Hopefully they’d find a way out. Maybe they’d be stuck here forever…

“Aw, come on Riku!” Riku froze as a voice that sounded just like Sora’s flitted through his mind. “You’ve been hanging out in darkness too long. You gotta try and think positive!”

Despite the situation, Riku laughed. Hand it to Sora, who’d been trapped in the darkness, to be the one to yank Riku out of this state. He shook his head and, summoning up whatever memory he had to fly when they’d fought that monster on the mountain, and forced himself over to the side where, out of the corner of his eye, he could see Kairi still falling. He pushed himself forward and grabbed her hand, wrapping an arm around her waist, and flying them both upwards.

“I’ve already lost you once,” he said, or probably shouted, with all the commotion going on. “I’m not losing you again!”

He stopped in front of Ansem and let Kairi go. She had apparently remembered how to fly as well as nodded, gripping her Keyblade.

They stared at the shirtless villain attached to the giant heartless contraption, and Kairi reached over and squeezed his hand. “We got this,” she said quietly, turning to look at him. “We’ll save Sora.”

He squeezed back, and summoned his Keyblade.

\--

As fights go, this one was _weird_. Between fighting a shirtless Ansem, landing in multiple darkness filled rooms to save Donald and Goofy, fighting a giant _face_ , and then shirtless Ansem _again_ , Riku really didn’t know what to expect when Ansem and the heartless thing exploded. He just covered his eyes and hoped for the best.

When he looked again, Ansem was glaring at them from where he floated. “It is futile. The Keyblade alone cannot seal the door to darkness.” He turned and beckoned to the door that had appeared earlier. “Kingdom Hearts! Fill me with the power of darkness!”

And just their luck would have it, the door creaked open and darkness began to pour out of it. Donald groaned. Goofy just looked nervous but gripped his shield.

Riku had some snarky retort (or he hoped he did because he was pretty damn tired), but Kairi jumped in first, pointing her Keyblade. “My grandmother told me this story.” Riku shot her a look like, is this the time, really? But Kairi ignored him. “Basically, within the darkest depths, there is always light. So if you say we’re in the darkest heart of all the worlds… then…” she turned to Riku, who was slowly beginning to piece together what she was saying.

“Then,” Riku echoed, pointing his Keyblade at Ansem. “Kingdom Hearts has to be light!”

And as if on cue, blinding light emerged from the cracked door. Riku covered his eyes and Kairi shielded him, as if she could suddenly take it (which, Riku thought, as the light pierced his eyes despite them being squeezed shut, wasn’t she a princess of light? Maybe she could).

But then as soon as the light was there, did it vanish. Riku blinked slowly as Kairi moved away from him, grinning, but Donald squawked.

“The door is open!” he shouted, and they all turned. Sure enough, small wisps of darkness were emitting from the door.

Without another word, they all flew over, landing and running as they got close enough. Goofy and Donald took one side, as Riku and Kairi took the other, and attempted to shut the door.

“It’s too heavy!” Goofy shouted, pushing at the door.

“We’ll never get it shut!” Kairi yelled, back to the door and scraping her feet against the floor.

“We have to,” Donald shrieked. “There's heartless in there!”

Riku grimaced and pushed at the door but it just wouldn’t budge. “Guys, I don’t—” he started to say when a hand reached from the other side of the door.

“Come on guys!” Sora shouted and Riku’s whole world fell. “If we work together, we can shut it!”

Kairi gasped and Donald and Goofy shouted something that Riku couldn’t hear because if Sora was inside, Riku wasn’t going to _shut the damn door_. He reversed his position, and tried his hardest to pull the door open further.

Quickly realizing what was happening, Kairi grabbed Riku’s arm but he shook her off quickly. “Riku, we can’t open this door anymore!”

Riku ignored her and actually felt the door shift ever so slightly. Sora’s eyes widened

“Riku, you can’t let the heartless from behind the door! Stop, please!” Sora shouted, trying to tug at the door. “Riku, stop!”

“I already messed up!” Riku shouted, and Sora froze. “I messed up and I hurt people but I got _you_ hurt but I can make it right! I’m not leaving you behind! Not again.” He twisted his body and reached through, trying to grab Sora. “Please! Maybe you can slip through!”

Sora face fell and he shook his head. “I’ll be okay, Riku! I promise!”

But Riku wasn’t going to listen to that. He could see through the opening that there were _a lot_ of heartless in there and Sora didn’t even have a Keyblade and-

“Don’t worry Riku!” The voice from the room before Destiny Island said and Donald and Goofy shouted some variation of “Your majesty!” “I’ll protect Sora! We got this.”

But Riku kept pulling at the door until Sora finally grabbed his hand. “Riku,” Sora said softly, squeezing it. “I’ll be okay. I promise. I have a Keyblade.” He summoned it with his free hand, and another Keyblade appeared. Kairi was probably grinning behind him at the fact that now all three of them could wield Keyblades if she wasn't so busy trying to lock Sora inside.

It hit him that he wasn’t going to actually get this door open without any help and no one was going to help him. Riku sunk to his knees, vaugly realized Sora knelt down with him. “I’m so sorry,” he said. It suddenly hit him that he was crying and the realization only made his eyes tear up more. “Sora, I’m so sorry. I didn’t want any of this to happen. I never meant for you to get _hurt_. I'm _sorry!_ ”

His hand was still through the opening in the door, he realized numbly, as Sora squeezed it again. Riku looked up dumbly, half blinded by tears as Sora brought his wrist to his mouth and kissed it softly.

“Riku,” Sora said again, even quieter. The others could probably still hear them but Riku pretended, for a moment, that it was just the two of them. “It’s okay. I forgive you. I promise.” He looked up, eyes resolved. “Even when this door is shut, I’ll see you again, okay?”

It felt like an eon passed as they stared at each other through that small opening, but eventually, Riku nodded and Sora tugged him up. Riku realized belatedly that Kairi had pulled him up on his other side. Sora squeezed his hand one last time before dropping it and gripping his side of the door again.

The king shouted, “Now Sora!” and Sora tugged the door back. Riku realized he was probably no help but Kairi, Goofy, and Donald were able to push the door shut as Riku stared through the opening.

Before the door shut completely, Sora looked at the two of them. “Take care of each other, okay?” he said, before his face broke into a grin. “I’ll be back soon!”

Kairi nodded and Riku gritted his teeth and rubbed at his eyes and together, the four of them managed to shut the door on Sora’s smiling face. Maybe Riku’s eyes were playing tricks on him, but in that last second, Riku could swear he saw tears rolling down Sora's cheeks.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Riku and Kairi raised their Keyblades. Something inside him tightened and then suddenly the door in front of them exploded into bright lights that disappeared into the sky. Riku didn’t even realize he’d fallen to his knees until Kairi had dropped her weapon and wrapped her arms around him. “We’ll find him,” Kairi said, stroking his hair. “I promise we will.”

For all of Donald’s good traits, subtly definitely wasn’t one of them. “Well now what do we do,” he said, crossing his arms. Riku refused to move away from Kairi, but even he could feel her bristle in annoyance.

“Welp,” Goofy said, gently patting Riku’s shoulder. “We gotta find the King and Sora. That’s first!” Riku glanced past Kairi’s shoulder to see Goofy nodding down to him, and suddenly Riku felt really stupid.

As annoying as Donald was, he and Goofy had been looking for the king, who had just vanished alongside Sora. They hadn’t fallen to their knees and cursed the heavens. And neither had Kairi, who was still holding him close.

Even if he would always blame himself for what he did, if he closed his eyes, he could picture Sora saying, “I forgive you,” and could remember what it felt like when Sora had kissed his hand.

Falling apart like this wouldn’t help Sora at all.

He nodded slowly, rubbing at his face. Kairi and Goofy each held out a hand, and he took it, hopping to his feet.

“I guess we should follow that road,” Kairi said, dusting off her skirt. “I mean, there’s no where else to go.”

And then Riku looked over to the girl he’d fought and attacked people to protect, who ended up protecting him in the end. He didn’t need to be stronger than her or Sora. For as much as he had scoffed at Sora about “friends being his power,” he suddenly understood what he meant. He smiled slowly and nodded, summoning his Keyblade.

“Yeah,” Riku said. “Let’s get going.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone who stuck through this short little fic from it's inception and the people who tagged along for the ride! I wrote the first chapter and it suddenly hit me that I wanted to see how things changed with that one simple switch.
> 
> I don't think I realized how... annoyed? I was that Sora didn't even consider trying to open the door to get Riku out when I first played Kingdom Hearts. So I guess you can blame chapters 2-5 on that. I just wanted to see _someone_ freak out over their friend being caught behind the door.
> 
> Either way I do hope you liked it, and thank you _so_ much for reading! If you want to chat, find me on [tumblr](http://legendaryguardian.tumblr.com/)!


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